Relatively hot weather

I just heard a bird chirp outside, and was reminded forcefully of how beautiful it is outside. Tomorrow is going to be just as warm, and I’m really loving the idea of going out during the weekend.

I said as much to the friendly customer rep from Wells Fargo bank when I called him for something yesterday. It’s really warming up, I said.

“When you say “warming up”, what’s the temperature?” he asked me.

Good question. “It’s going to be in the thirties. Might even go to forty” I told him enthusiastically.

I could see he wasn’t impressed. He actually laughed. Of course, he was living in California, somewhere near Sacramento. Hmph. What does he know?

Yes, yes, that’s forty degrees Fahrenheit, or 4 degrees Celsius. Now when you say four degrees, it does sound a little cold, I admit. Which is why it’s always better to think in Fahrenheit; forty degrees feels a lot warmer than four.

But believe me, my neighbors are going to walk around in shorts tomorrow. It’s going to be a warm weekend. Forty in February? Can you believe it?

I grew up in celsius land. But now, I feel so much better thinking in Fahrenheit. It’s not just that zero degrees celsius sounds much colder than 32F. Minus 10F sounds much more bearable than minus 23C. But when the temperature goes into the minus 30 levels, it doesn’t much matter which measure you use anyway. This is what my forecast looked like a month ago :

Just a few days back, the temperature was in the minus 10 F range, so it’s not surprising I find 30 degrees the height of warmth. I might even go so far as to call it a little hot, especially if I forgetfully wear my usual jacket.

I can see it’s more difficult to convince you guys in Texas and California, though. And all of you in India.

But all weather is relative. It’s also amazing how quickly we adjust.

All I am thankful for is that, even when it was minus thirty outside, it was sunny. That is harder to explain, though. How it can be a bright, sunny day and yet be bitterly cold.

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14 thoughts on “Relatively hot weather”

Not to rub it in or anything, but it’s supposed to reach 50 (Fahrenheit, of course) in New York tomorrow.
When I want to tell people how bitterly cold it is, I always give the temperature in Celsius. And to stress the heat, the temperature in Fahrenheit does the job. Much more dramatic that way!!

Although, I find that stressing the heat never helps. You can never impress those folks in India. “Oh, 95 degrees?” they’d say, “of course, it’s 105 here, and very humid too AND there’s no power”.

Weather’s all relative. I can agree to that. I remember when I was in Delhi couple of years back, ppl would give me an awkward look when I go around in normal summer clothes in December. For them December meant woolens and sweaters and a lot of winter clothing, irrespective of the actual temperature. Coming from Kerala, I had no pre programmed baggage abt how winter should be.

That’s interesting. Was it a warm December, or were you impervious to cold?

I like that weather alert where it says that the actual temp would be -30 but it would feel like -29. Wow, what a consolation, that must be. I didn’t relaise you’ could feel anything at all after it has hit -10, leave alonbe the subtle variations between -29 and -30.
And that reminds me why I will never leave Namma Bengaluru. 🙂

Not the subtle difference between -29 and -30 (unless, say the -29 was with windchill and the -30 was just cold, in which case -29 would seem a lot colder). But yes, -10 is when your jeans merely feel wet; -29 is when you realize jeans are wet AND made of (really thin) paper 😉

And at -40, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s F or C – it’s all the same. 😉
Yup, there have been a few days here (over the past decade) when the temperature did go there, taking wind chill factor into account.

Yup, as you know, it’s not much fun 😦 On the other hand, the bragging value is enormous 😛

It averaged around 8 degree celsius that year, I think. There were few others as well, who were not that affected by the cold. The body is supposed to be able to adjust to climate change (within limits), since we are warm blooded. But generally ppl opt for winter clothing, more out of habit before winter actually starts to kick in, and don’t adjust to the conditions.